Seth Kahan

Innovation is nothing if not successful. If you’ve read the innovation literature, I know you’ve heard about letting your people be creative and maintaining a tolerance for mistakes. You’ve seen the lists that include things like: play, curiosity, intuition, collaboration, and failure. I’ll probably tick a lot of innovation pundits off when I say this: […]

What better topic for Labor Day? Let’s talk about job growth. I alone, a one-man shop, employ the following: accountant, bookkeeper, professional assistant, landscaper & his crew, housekeeper & her crew, graphic designer. So, my little operation is responsible for part time income for at least ten people. I know you have your own crew,

Here in the USA we are facing an economic slowdown with consumer and business attitudes becoming challenging. All of this is likely to result in a reduction in spending. But, this is good news for those with an entrepreneurial spirit. This is exactly the time when people with solutions will quickly rise to the forefront

You probably excel in your work. Most of my readers are exceptional performers. My clients are easily in the top 5% of America’s leaders, running organizations that deliver remarkable value. I am proud of the people I associate with. I choose this work because I associate with movers and shakers who make a difference, altering

Humans are unique in that we conceptualize the future and then work together to bring it into existence, consistently breaking barriers, crossing thresholds, and achieving the impossible. In my work I use conversations to open the doors of perception to new possibilities, creating an environment where half-baked ideas can emerge for examination and development, insights

While writing my bestseller, Getting Change Right, I had a conversation with my former boss, Jim Wolfensohn. Jim  began his work as president of the World Bank with an ambitious change agenda. When he arrived, he found an organization that was considered by many heads of state to be a necessary but bothersome bureaucracy that

In 1999 I was Communications Manager for a large scale, global initiative at the World Bank. We were gutting over 100 disconnected systems and replacing them with a single real-time application. At the behest of our Steering Committee, I hired Michael Hammer, the international best-selling author of Reengineering the Corporation, to come and speak to

In thermodynamics a phase transition marks the shift from one state to another. As energy in the system increases, the enthalpy, the states move through the progression outlined to the right. What I want to point out is that each state has its own properties and in most cases it would be hard to confuse

The keystone is a wedge-shaped stone at the very top of an arch. It was the last piece to be placed in the construction and completes the curved structure. The other stones push against it and as a result the arch does not collapse. This is why it is key, earning its name and providing

It takes a lot of hard work to hit the bullseye, doesn’t it? Seemingly endless preparation. Grit. Practice. Maturity. Talent (talent? how did that get in there? Does talent take hard work?). Backbone. Elbow grease. Tenacity. Perserverance. Resolve. Fortitude. Nerve. Steel. It seems it takes a lot of those things that drain you just thinking